Happy Veterans Day!

I am humbled when I think about those in the armed forces, willingly putting themselves in danger for the welfare of others. They have more bravery than I could ever have, and I am thankful for their service and sacrifice.

American composer John Adams set Walt Whitman‘s “The Wound Dresser” for voice and orchestra. It is a lengthy and emotional narrative, in the tradition of Barber‘s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (listen to it here). Musically, it’s somewhere between an opera and a song cycle, and the text ranges from fine poetry to graphic description. It’s a longer listen, but well worth it, especially on this day. Whitman wrote his poem shortly after the Civil War, 150 years ago. Only 100 years ago, the Great War ravaged much of the world. And World War II was so horrific that we are still in shock concerning the horrors of the holocaust and atomic bomb. Take a mere 20 minutes, have a listen, and give thanks for our soldiers.

Everyone seems to agree that this presidential election is unpleasant, depressing, stressful, etc. So if you’re sick of listening to all the political bullshit, allow me to give you some very different bullshit for your listening pleasure!

If you’ve taken a music appreciation class, you’ve probably had some John Cage forced on you. I should point out that I like the guy, and I like musing over and talking about his ideas. At the same time, I don’t actually enjoy listening to his music; I think it’s main value is not aesthetic but philosophical.

Among the many cool ideas he had (I say “cool” because I don’t think it’s necessarily “good”) was to remove the human composer from the act of composing as much as possible. From here he began exploring other ways to challenge our ideas about music composition and creation (and, about ourselves and our social interactions). His piece Indeterminacy is a recording of Cage reading random sentences from selected stories, while his friend David Tudor makes random musical sounds with various instruments.

If the music were more typical, and the spoken words made sense, this recording would be same-old-stuff, perhaps something akin to a children’s story accompanied by music. But since both music and words are nonsensical, our initial response is “what the hell is this?” But, to a non-human, both same-old-stuff and the nonsensical-stuff might sound exactly the same. Who gets to define what is music and what isn’t, anyway?

I’m ending this year’s Jewish High Holy Days with a meditative, minimalist work from a unique source.

John Zorn is … interesting. He might be the most eclectic musician ever. On one hand, he writes instrumental metal. And, he has a sense of humor, as can be seen by his song and album titles, which include Lovecraftian Lore and Jewish puns. He also wrote film scores, plays jazz, and composes concert music.

Kol Niedre is the declaration of Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. Yesterday’s piece used this traditional Jewish melody as well, but today’s clear texture makes it much easier to hear. A low and high pitch E is sustained for practically the entire piece, breaking only in the middle for a brief hymn. The effect is timeless and mystical, simple yet profound.